Fundraising Goal

Robotic sailing is a challenging engineering problem that has yet to be thoroughly explored. Robotics itself is a contemporary field of study, while sailing is a fairly complicated yet extremely energy efficient task. Combining the two can lead to insights in both fields. Most oceanic vessels involve very energy inefficient systems; incorporating things like constantly running propellers or other frequent need actuation systems. Sailing is an underappreciated method of transportation that incorporates everything that is important about long term voyages, including very lightweight boats that mainly make use of their environment for power.

Recently, the ORS team has turned its attention to real world problems, with the vision of changing the face of nautical research and navigation. Our plan is to create a robust transatlantic platform, allowing us to test long distance robotic technologies using energy efficient methods.

An autonomous boat that can replace manned, cumbersome oceanic vehicles in the field can analyze and track ocean life or even investigate oil spills completely autonomously.

Accomplishing these lofty goals requires resources and funding on a large scale, and every donation helps us get closer to and learn more about both worlds of robotics and nautical research. We recognize all our supporters and would be grateful if you would consider sponsoring our program.